Germany - 18 Sep to 14 Oct 18. Week 2

Mon 24 Sep - On Sunday night we suffered a terrific storm which blasted the van and the rain came down in torrents. It was certainly scary! In the morning we wandered around the huge Hymer World showroom and picked up 2 free bus tickets into Wertheim am Main, twinned with Huntingdon and Godmanchester. Wertheim is a very pleasant town and, with the good weather, we enjoyed a picnic by the Rathous then took the bus back to our van. There is an outlet village (same as Bicester Village) next door. It was crap - overpriced designer tosh at not much of a discount, so we went to the chocolate shop, which was much more our style. Finally, just as the dealership was closing, we decided that a new water container, which fits perfectly by the handbrake (something we've been looking for for a while), was needed.  

Wertheim am Main

Certainly more picturesque than Huntingdon

Rubbish designer outlet

 

 

You should see the size of the sausage!

Tuesday 25th. Another early start as the baker's van arrived a quarter of an hour before she was due. In Germany, the baker's vans do not like to arrive quietly. As usual, muggins had to go and queue for the bread because she was still in bed. We drove down the Romantic Route (when we eventually found it in really thick fog), then stopped at a few towns en-route, before ending up at Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Rothenberg is a very pretty and well-preserved town with the stellplatz just outside the city walls. The place was packed with tourists, but we enjoyed wandering around in the sunshine, albeit it was pretty cold. There are mainly tat shops with a couple of branches of Käthe Wohlfahrt selling overpriced cheesy Christmas decorations and cuckoo clocks. They even have the cheek to charge to go into their "Christmas Museum". Errr - no thanks.  A lot of the shops were selling pastries called snowballs. We thought that they may be nice. We were wrong. They are bloody awful. We wandered around the city walls. OK if you are a Japanese scrum half, but not user friendly when you are a 6'3" hunk! Anyway, beers were calling, and we needed to restock at the supermarket, so we left the sightseeing (including the church that they wanted to charge to get into) to the hordes of tourists. We did go back after dark though to see the place well lit up (but it was still busy). In all, a very pretty place, worth a visit but packed full of tourists and associated tat shops.

Another of those lovely fountains

Rothenburg

As featured in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Rothenburg City Walls

The city walls - built for Nibelung

Many jigsaws have this picture

Rothenburg at Night

Wednesday and on to Dinkelsbühl, another very pretty town and, in some ways, we preferred it to Rothenburg as a appears to be a working town rather than a pure tourist town. It is another medieval walled fortress town with a plethora of towers trying to outdo each other in prettiness. Again, we wandered around, including the many backstreets (which were equally pretty) before enjoying an excellent ice cream (the Germans love their ice creams) and a well-deserved pint in the beer garden at 2.60 euro a pint! 

Dinkelsbühl

Dinkelsbühl

Thurs 27. On to a campsite in Augsburg stopping at Donauworth which was boring so we didn't stay long. The campsite was a bit basic (rather like the site in Montpellier where we stayed in January 17) and we couldn't check in until 1500hrs, but it was a nice warm sunny day so we sat in the sunshine. Finally we managed to check in and, having paid for a couple of nights, we got the bikes out and cycled the 5 miles or so into Augsburg, which was an adventure in itself. It may have been the bike ride but we weren't overly impressed with Augsburg. A big city with lots of down and outs sitting around drinking, fairly modern buildings (I think most of the city was destroyed during WWII) and not much to write home about. If you want shopping without much prettiness then it's fine.

Donauworth

Augsburg

Fri 28. Up early, we caught the bus into Augsburg to catch a train using our Bavaria one day pass at €31 for the pair of us, heading for Munich and the Oktoberfest. The train was packed! Full of lederhosen and dirndl clad partygoers heading for Oktoberfest and already drinking beer. The risk of electric shock from static produced by the nylon dirndls was a real issue!  Arriving at the Hauptbahnhof  in Munich, we decided we ought to have something in our stomachs before the big day started, so we had bratties and fries, although she was so excited at the prospect of the day ahead she threw most of hers over the pavement. The Oktoberfest is brilliant.  It doesn't cost to go in, there's loads of beer halls, funfairs, food stalls and a great atmosphere. We spent some time in the Augustiner hall before wandering around the event in the warm sunshine. This is a place that all beer drinkers should go to on pilgrimage at least once. It is fantastic. Being a Friday, by afternoon the ground had started to really fill up and we decided to leave to catch our last bus back home, but on the way we had to stop at the Hofbrauhaus for one last beer, which we probably didn't need. Eventually we got on the train, got on the bus, and walked home in the dark, collapsing into bed.

Sat 29. A very gentle day as we were knackered after the Munich escapades. We left Augsburg and went to Landsburg, originally hoping to stop at a couple more towns on the Romantic Route, but there was a major diversion. A very pretty town with the River Lech running through. We had a nice lunch sitting outside in the warm sunshine and a very pleasant, gentle stroll around this picturesque town. 

Landsburg

Dong, dong, dong  - Oh, it must be Sunday at silly o'clock.  All the bells in town to wake us up for an early start and a run down to the very busy stellplatz at Fussen. It was a glorious day - we quickly parked up and took to the bikes and headed to the castles. Being a sunny Sunday it was crowded, but we took the steep, knackering, path up above Neuschwanstein heading for the Marienbrucke and the glorious views of the castle. There were big queues for the bridge, and some arrogant Italian bastards pushing in. I hope that when he shows his video when they get home somebody can understand the English commentary in the background, describing the party, their arrogance, ignorance, personal hygiene, parentage and lack of manners. I should imagine it would be quite amusing. Nothing I wouldn't say to their faces - and I did! Anyway, back down the mountain and a cycle along through the pretty meadows to a beautiful alpine biergarden for a couple of pints.

Fussen

Neuschwanstein

Alpine meadows

Like a red rag to a bull

Germany - 18 Sep to 14 Oct 18. Week 1

After a busy morning at the dentist and hygienist on the Monday, it was off down to the Chunnel on Tuesday for a quiet and leisurely trip to our usual overnight spot at Cite Europe. After arrival we did a spot of shopping, noting how much prices have risen in France. We don't know what's happened over there, but everything seems to have become ridiculously expensive.

A bit lonely at Cite Europe

Wednesday dawned windy but sunny. We met a few Motorhome Fun members, had a quick chat, bought some fresh bread and continued our journey down through Belgium to our overnight parking by the canal at Thieu. It was a warm and sunny day so we sat outside and basked in the sun.

Tea for Thieu

On Thursday morning a fisherman arrived and decided to announce his arrival (at 0645hrs) by tooting his horn and parking up right in front of the van. With our early alarm call, we decided to drive straight through to the Mosel, stopping at Luxembourg to fill up with fuel at just over £1 a litre. Our intended stopping spot, the stellplatz at Piesport, was full, so  we stopped just over the river at Minheim. Having parked up we set off in search of a nice cool bottle of wine, but the place was like a ghost town. Finally we tracked down somebody who was willing to flog us a few bottles and we sat outside the van and tried to ignore the mullet-haired Belgian parked opposite with a voice like a foghorn. We actually met more funsters on the stellplatz. They get everywhere!

Vineyards in Minheim

On Friday morning the bread van arrived and we joined the long queue for our daily rolls. We'll miss having decent bread delivered when we get home. Then it was on to the stellplatz at Zell where we wanted to collect some more of the very nice wine we bought on our last visit. We did the long walk dodging the rain. Why does it always rain in Zell?

New bridge over the Mosel is nearing completion

Zell

Always a queue for the bread van

Big boats chugging past the windscreen

The following day we drove from Zell to Mainz, parking in the Stellplatz next to the football stadium. Mainz is quite a big city so, accordingly, we walked for miles. We stopped at a stall for bratwurst just so we could squeeze the teats on the hanging sauce bottles. What a great idea they are! We noticed that the crowds gathered around the various wine stalls dotted around the city were drinking what appeared to be pints of wine. This we had to try. Apparently called Weinschorle,  it is a sort of spritzer, but ours was a pint of wine with a dash of soda on top. Suitably refreshed, if not pie-eyed, we bimbled around the cathedral and the old town then, not very far from the Mainz Cathedral, is St. Stefan's Church. It has beautiful stained glass windows created by the Frenchman Marc Chagall. The original windows of the church were destroyed during the second world war so the Pastor contacted the Jewish artist Chagall who promised to design the new windows. Finally, knackered, we staggered back to the van to beat the rain.

Saucy Teats

Mainz

Mainz Cathedral

Weinschorle

Chagall windows

Woke up on Sunday morning to heavy rain. We drove to Lohr am Main as the rain stopped, so we had a walk around a very pleasant town famous for being the birthplace of Snow White:

"Once upon a time, a kind and beautiful princess lived in a handsome castle in Germany. Her mother died when she was still a girl, and her father remarried shortly afterwards. But the stepmother was a vain and manipulative woman, favouring her own children over her adopted stepdaughter. Inevitably, the relationship snapped; the princess fled away from her family, over great hills and through deep forests. Eventually she settled and lived in exile in a community of dwarfs working in the local mines. The princess (well, Baroness, technically…) was Maria Sophia Margaretha Catherina von Erthal. Quite a mouthful, isn’t it? But you have almost certainly recognised her already as “Schneewittchen” from the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale: or, in English Snow White.".

The small town does make much of this connection, but it isn't too tacky and, with the surrounding forests, mining communities, apple orchards and tradition for glassmaking is quite easy to imagine how the fairy-tale came about.

We bought some rolls and cakes from the bakery, then drove on to Hymer world just outside Wertheim, where we parked up for the night.

Lohr am Main

Snow White - and Jonny Bear

Many German towns have these wonderful modern fountains. We love them!